I am an evil giraffe. Who no longer blogs about politics.

I keep lowering my expectations about Obamacare, and the administration keeps not meeting them:

A supposedly temporary “fix” that President Obama announced in November to address the problem of the millions of Americans who lost coverage as a result of his health care law has now been extended through Oct. 1, 2016, the Department of Health and Human Services announced Wednesday.

This is, of course, an attempt to minimize the damage done to Democrats over the next four years. Won’t work, though. You know why?

In an attempt to limit the disruption to the insurance industry that would be caused by the move, HHS also announced that the “risk corridor” program (which has been described as a “bailout” to insurers) would be further modified to funnel more money to insurers in states affected by the change.

Because it’s not just described as a bailout; it is a bailout, and that is a dirty word to precisely the people that I need to show up at the polls in 2014 and 2016.

Reid has not yet unified his caucus on the issue, which is a constant in the Democrats’ election-year playbook. Of the 55 senators who caucus with the Democrats, only 32 have signed on as official co-sponsors of Sen. Tom Harkin’s (D-Iowa) bill.

Mind you, in Barack Obama’s shoes I’d… be doing a better job, sure. God knows the bar isn’t hard to clear. But I’d also be totally trying to provoke an impeachment crisis, not so much because it’s a good option for the President with regard to securing his legacy as it is about the only option that he has left.

Moe Lane

PS: Hey, remember when the Left complained and complained about unitary executive theory? Good times, good times.

Dana Milbank. When you can’t tell the administration yell leaders from the sarcastic mockers on first glance, well…

Moe Lane

PS: Milbank, by the way, is one of those people telling themselves that the shutdown blunted the impact of this story. Judging from Memeorandum right at this moment, the question is: ‘blunted,’ as compared to what?

PPS: More accurately: an Obamacare delay was always on the table. I think that the Obama administration may be beginning to think that it should make an offer for it.

[President Barack Obama] crusaded for [obamacare] and has embraced its nickname. But he did not write the law. Congress did. Major changes are necessary — he has stipulated by his actions that this law as constituted cannot work — and Congress should legislate them for his review.

Bottom line: Let’s delay and rewrite this ill-conceived law. Congress need not start from scratch. Lawmakers can build on what all of us have learned from three years of painful trial and error. Three years of attempting, but failing, to make this clumsy monstrosity work for the American people.